Hi all,
Complex topic but intentionally quick message for now to keep the coop discussion moving…
I’m reading through a paper from the UK think-tanks ‘NESTA’ & ‘Cooperatives UK’.
It has some useful information for our fledgling Aragon Cooperative (we also require an agreed name IMO:).
So far there’s a few things (I think) the aragon coop has rough consensus on - though require a vote.
- We abide & agree on the Aragon Manifesto as Foundational Document.
- One member, one vote.
- It plays some (yet to be defined) role as proposal filter for Community Fund DAO.
- Members agree to abide and implement voted outcomes.
I also think there are further, more specific, individual proposals for coop exploratory governance that we should collate and collectively debate.
Pg. 27- 29 of the NESTA report discuss the ‘Community Shares Model’, which has shown some practical success.
They then go on to discuss and propose a ‘Mutual Shares Model’, that I think could be applicable here, though for me capital and labour are interchangeable implementable terms:
page 29:
“
• Democratic control exercised through the practice of
one-member-one-vote, not one-share-one-vote.
yup
• A limit on the amount an individual member can invest,
preventing such a member exercising undue influence over the co-operative.
I’m here considering the investment of labour, though think I am in favour of some kind of ‘board’. As has also been mentioned, an allocation of funds for the coop would be useful.
• Limited compensation for share capital, paid in the form of interest,
at a rate no higher than is sufficient to attract and retain the capital required.
I do wonder whether certain tasks could earn active coop members ANT (or something that confers voting rights and/or further participation). I’m not a fan of reputation systems (cards on table:), too game-able.
• The right to withdraw share capital, at or below its paid-up value,
subject to the discretion of the co-operative’s board,
safeguarding the best interests of the co-operative.
Ditto - how do we measure/withdraw participatory membership rights?
• No member or shareholder has rights to the residual assets of the enterprise,
or any form of capital gain associated with ownership (
known as being ‘asset-locked’).
Yup again
Applying this model to platform co-ops would work along the same lines
as described above, with one key distinction.
Legally co-operatives can pay share dividends to people who have
a transactional relationship to the co-operative.
For instance, if the co-operative was a shop,
this would be anyone who buys from or sells items to the shop.
Institutional investors (i.e. social investors) would not be eligible for dividend payments
as they do not have a transactional relationship with the co-operative.”
At some point we will have to define the coops relationship to AA & A1.
Regards to all,
J.